Jim Weibe, CEO of Belite Enterprises, is just busting with pride over his appearance on the television show MythBusters. Seems the public showed a strong interest in aviation recently over a story that an aircraft, clawed by a bear in Alaska, was repaired with tape and safely flown home. Letters to the television show proved there are mostly doubters out there who don’t think that took place. The Belite ultralight was clawed into shreds, and then repaired. It flew! He even got to buzz the stars of the show as they stood on the runway. Let’s see, that will be $500 for violation of FAA rules about getting a haircut with a propeller.

2 Responses to “A bear of an airplane”

They’ve done several aviation-related episodes now. In this one, they also got a chance to talk a little about control surfaces, weight and balance, cross-wind limitations, and test flight safety. None of it was particularly in depth, but it’s great to see this on a mainstream program.

One area where the Mythbusters gang really blew it was that they flew it at 5ft AGL and declared victory. In the “aftershow”, they claimed that “the airplane doesn’t know where the ground is” therefore it will fly at higher altitudes. That is simply not true. The test pilot flew it in ground effect. Grant, being an RC pilot, ought to have known that.